After the disqualification of Azad Jammu and Kashmir prime minister Sardar Tanveer Ilyas by the full court bench of the AJK High Court Tuesday, Khawaja Farooq Ahmad has been appointed as acting AJK prime minister on Wednesday. A notification in this regard was issued by the President House, Muzaffarabad on Tuesday. AJK President Barrister Sultan Mehmood Chaudhry signed the summary. 

According to the notification, Khawaja Farooq Ahmad will remain acting prime minister of the Azad Kashmir till the appointment of new Leader of the House. Mr Ahmad is a veteran politician who is in politics for more than three decades. He shot to fame after defeating his rival former AJK prime minister Sardar Abdul Qayyum in the election. The Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) High Court Tuesday rejected the apology of prime minister Ilyas for his statements about the judiciary and disqualified him for contempt of court.

Both the AJK Supreme Court and High Court had summoned the prime minister for the hearing of a suo motu notice taken to seek clarification from him on his statement regarding the judiciary. The AJK HC full court bench pronouncing its verdict disqualified Mr Ilyas from being a member of the legislative assembly for contempt of court.

Justice Chaudhry Khalid Rasheed read out the judgement of the AJK High Court full bench, sentencing the AJK premier till the rising of the court. On Monday, the superior courts of AJK had separately served notices on Mr Ilyas to explain his position with regard to his derogatory remarks about the superior judiciary in his speeches at public meetings.

The notices, served through his principal secretary, asked Mr Ilyas to separately appear before the high court and the Supreme Court on Tuesday. At a function in Islamabad over the weekend, Mr Ilyas had indirectly blamed the judiciary for affecting the functioning of his government and interfering in the domain of the executive through the grant of stay orders.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-INP